Two cases of teens shooting themselves while in police custody

Two separate instances of suspects shooting themselves AFTER being frisked, handcuffed and tossed into the backs of police cruisers are making both civilians and cops question their safety.

First in Durham, North Carolina. Police pick up Jesus Huerta on a prior trespassing charge.

Despite the fact officer Duncan properly patted him down, Huerta somehow still managed to access a hidden handgun and shot and killed himself in the back of the squad car. The case has sparked outrage in the community along with concern from everyone in law enforcement as well.”

Durham police chief Jose Lopez is quoted as saying,"I know that it is hard for people not in law enforcement to understand how someone could be capable of shooting themselves while handcuffed behind the back," Lopez said. "While incidents like this are not common, they unfortunately have happened in other jurisdictions in the past."

In a separate incident in suburban Houston Texas, a senior at North Shore High was tweeting out suicidal messages. His friends noticed and alerted their teacher and school resource officers. When they found the teen in the boy’s restroom at the school, he was agitated and Sheriff's deputies were called in to take him to a hospital for his own welfare.

The Houston teen is in intensive care at local hospital. The deputy there says he didn’t do a full-on frisk, and that’s where the mistake was made. However because the victim wasn’t being charged with a crime and merely being transported to a hospital because he was suicidal, the deputy was acting within department policies.

While no one really knows exactly how the two teens were able to do this while cuffed, or how the weapons were missed in the frisking process. However another video produced by the Jonesboro Arkansas police sheds some light on a method. The suspect has to do a fair amount of wiggling around to maneuver their hands to where the weapon is stashed, pull it out, and then put it put to their heads, proving it is possible.

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